


Halloween Party

by viviegirl05



Category: The Flash
Genre: Costume Party, Drunken Shenanigans, Everyone Loves The Flash, Fluff, Halloween, Some feels, little kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 06:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8567599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viviegirl05/pseuds/viviegirl05
Summary: Barry hasn't been feeling so great about being the Flash lately. He's been failing a lot of people, not saving as many as he should. Maybe the CCPDs annual Halloween costume party can lift his spirits.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't been feeling great lately, so I decided to write some fluffy, feel-good stuff to make myself feel better. Enjoy :)

Every year the CCPD hosted a costume party fund raiser. Costumes were mandatory, and every member of the CCPD was obligated to attend. Barry tried to get out of it, but it was made clear to him by Captain Singh that CSIs were part of the CCPD and therefore required to dress up just like the rest of them.  
Barry sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror of his room. Iris had insisted be not go as the Flash; Caitlin, Cisco, Dr. Wells, Joe, and Eddie all backed her up, saying that it would be too easy for someone to recognize him as the real Flash. He didn’t really want to anyway. The Flash had been failing a lot of people lately, not saving as many as he should. Hence, here he was. Standing in his room. Dressed as a giant teddy bear.  
“It’s funny! C’mon Bear, your name is BEAR-y, so you’re dressed as a bear! It’s cute!” Iris insisted. Barry rolled his eyes in exasperation. At least it was brown, not some stupid teddy-bear color. Barry scowled as she forced him to paint his nose black to “complete the look,” as Iris said. ‘More like complete the humiliation,’ Barry thought to himself.  
Giving himself one last look over in the mirror, Barry steeled himself. He exited his room and descended the stairs to meet Joe, Eddie, and Iris. They were car-pooling, even though Iris knew he was the Flash. Telling her had been a disaster, practically an F5 tornado of screaming and crying. But in the end Iris had forgiven him (mostly).  
Carpooling was really expected of them- it would look weird if Barry showed up alone, separate from Joe, as everyone knew they now lived together. And at least if they showed up as a group it would take some of the attention off of him.  
Iris and Eddie were clad in matching couple’s costumes- Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They looked adorable. Joe was dressed as a cop.  
“Seriously? No, if I can’t be the Flash, you can’t be a cop. I mean, c’mon, that’s not even a real costume! It’s just your old uniform!”  
“THANK YOU, Barry,” Iris said, looking at her dad pointedly. “I’ve been trying to explain that to him for the last twenty minutes!”  
“I’m not going to buy a costume just to wear it once and never look at it again!”  
“Well then why don’t you use one of your old costumes from when Barry and I were little and you used to take us trick-or-treating!” Iris insisted.  
“We still have that crayon costume,” Barry piped up evilly. If Barry had to humiliate himself, then so did Joe.  
Joe let out an exhausted sigh, a sign that Iris really had been going at it for quite a while and had finally worn him down.  
“Fine,” He grumbled, trudging up the stairs.  
They waited patiently as Joe changed upstairs, chatting idly about nothing, until Joe came back downstairs.  
He looked thoroughly put out as he glared at him from the face hole of his green crayon costume.  
“No funny comments,” he said sternly.  
“Of course not,” Iris said at once. “You look great dad! Much better than that cop outfit.”  
“Uniform, Iris, it’s called a uniform.”  
“Whatever,” she waved him off. “Let’s go! I can’t wait to get there and check out all the costumes!”  
They marched out the front door and piled in to Joes car, buckling up immediately like the good, upstanding citizens and cops they were.  
XXXXX  
When they finally arrived at the party, going through the laborious task of finding a parking spot, and trekking into the building the CCPD had rented out for the event, the party was in full swing.  
Barry spotted Captain Singh and his husband Rob near the entrance, dressed as salt and pepper shakers and gazing into each other’s eyes adoringly as they chatted. Barry couldn’t help the smile the sight brought to his face. They deserved to be happy, they were good people.  
Looking around, Barry saw no fewer than a dozen cop ‘costumes.’ He and Iris shared a look of annoyed exasperation. Really, did cops have so little imagination that they dressed as who they actually were for Halloween? You could be anything on Halloween! ANYTHING!  
Barry blushed when someone walked by in a Flash costume. It was so weird that people were dressing as him, flattering though it may be. The costume wasn’t horrible, but it was obviously fake, and obviously store-bought. It was made of a stretchy cotton and the shirt tied at the back of the neck. There were padded muscles too, which made Barry blush, secretly pleased that whoever had designed the costume though he was so strong. The mask/cowl fit poorly, stretching somewhat awkwardly across the officer’s cheeks, riding up a bit as he talked animatedly with someone in a clown costume.  
Iris nudged Barry, clearly seeing the Flash impersonator too, and wiggled her eyebrows at him. He ducked his head, embarrassed to have been caught eyeing someone dressed as him.  
“Hey, isn’t that Officer Jameson?” Eddie said, also watching the guy in the Flash suit. “Didn’t y-uh-the Flash save his life a few weeks ago during that shoot-out at First National?”  
“Yeah,” Joe said. “He must be grateful.” He winked at Barry, making him blush yet again.  
“Yeah, well, I guess. I mean, there were a lot of people at that shoot-out…” Barry mumbled.  
“Jameson!” Eddie called as they neared ‘The Flash.’ The man in question turn to greet them with a smile. “Nice costume, man.”  
“Thanks,” Jameson replied sunnily. “Just trying to show my appreciation! He saved my life, you know, and it’s not like I’m likely to get the chance to thank him in person anytime soon, so I thought I might contribute some good-will towards the guy by dressing up as him.” Jameson beamed. He looked so happy and proud to be the Flash.  
Barry blushed at the praise, and spoke softly, “I’m sure he’s grateful that you’re thinking of him so positively.”  
Jameson flashed him a grin, “I just hope he knows how much we cops appreciate him. He saves lives; he’s really making a difference!”  
Barry looked down to hide his blush.  
“Yeah,” Eddie agreed, “he really is helping out. I know the fire department loves him for putting out so many fires so quickly. He’s saved so many people that way.”  
Jameson got called away by a woman in a pirate costume and bid them goodbye.  
“Seriously, Eddie?” Barry was blushing scarlet.  
“What?” Eddie truly look baffled at Barry’s reaction. “The Flash really is making a difference- he’s saved a lot of lives! Probably more than we’ll ever know.”  
“He’s right Bear,” Joe put a hand on his shoulder, looking solemn. “The Flash makes Central City a safer place to be, and we’re all thankful that he’s around.”  
Barry blushed furiously- he wouldn’t be surprised if his cheeks were now permanently stained red with the amount of blushing he’d been doing tonight- and ducked away from the group to head to the snack table.  
XXXXX  
About forty-five minutes went by uneventfully; Barry chatted with some co-workers, sipped punch, and munched on finger food (mostly pretzels and chips, but no one was complaining), and found he was having a pretty decent time. By 7pm he had all but forgotten that he was dressed as a teddy bear.  
At 7:30 the kids started showing up. Mostly it was the children of members of the CCPD, but there were a few other kids from the neighborhood. Barry was immediately swarmed by toddlers, all hugging his legs and rubbing their faces against his soft costume.  
Barry smiled down at them, patting a few on the head as Iris snapped pictures of him, cooing at the sight of him being mobbed by two and three year olds who all wanted a hug from the “real, live teddy bear!”  
Barry indulged the children, crouching down and hugging them, praising their costumes and posing for their parents to take pictures.  
One kid in particular hung back. He was perhaps three and a half, maybe four, and dressed as the Flash. He seemed shy, clinging to his mother’s leg. Barry made his way over to him.  
“Hey little guy. Happy Halloween! Are you having a good time?” Barry smiled gently at the boy.  
The child hid his face in his mother’s leg somewhat before answering timidly, “yes.”  
Barry grinned at him; “do you like the Flash? That’s a pretty neat costume you have!”  
“The Flash saved me and mommy when bad guys came into our house. It was really scary! They had guns, but the Flash wasn’t scared!” The boy grew more confident, leaning forward to confide in Barry.  
“He ran so fast! Woosh! Then the guns were gone and the bad guys were all tied up! The Flash saved us! He’s a superhero!”  
Barry grinned at the kid, remembering that night. He had heard a scream as he was doing his rounds and went to check it out. When he got there he found two men in masks pointing guns at a pleading woman who was hiding her young child behind her as she begged them to take whatever they wanted, just don’t hurt them.  
Barry had ripped the guns from their hands and stashed them on the kitchen counter, then came back to tie the men up with an extension cord he pulled from the wall. Once he was sure the men were tied up securely, he checked on the woman.  
“Ma’am, everything’s alright now. They won’t hurt you. Are you two ok?”  
The woman had nodded feebly, clutching the child who stared at him with big, wondrous eyes. Barry smiled at him reassuringly.  
“The police are on their way,” Barry said, knowing that Cisco would have alerted them. “Just wait here for a few minutes and then the cops will take the bad men away.”  
Barry smiled at them, and then he was off.  
Coming back to the present, Barry grinned at the kid. “He sure is!” He agreed with the child.  
“He’s the fastest man alive! WOOSH!” The boy said excitedly, motioning with his arms how fast The Flash was.  
The boy’s mother looked down at him fondly. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s go get some candy.” The child nodded happily and waved goodbye to Barry.  
Barry waved back fondly. That kid really was absolutely adorable.  
XXXXX  
By 9pm all the kids were gone and the booze had come out of hiding. Technically there wasn’t supposed to be alcohol at a government-mandated event, but every year it showed up and no one was ever punished for it. Everyone was too hungover the next day to care about figuring out who brought the booze.  
By 10pm most everyone was drunk, except Barry, of course, who was the designated driver for Joe, Iris, and Eddie. Iris and Eddie had anticipated getting drunk and had made plans to stay in iris’s old room that night, meaning Barry wouldn’t have to worry about Joe wandering off or getting sick in the car while he helped the other two into their apartment.  
As the night had progressed, Barry noticed several other people dressed as the Flash. Six, by his count. He had heard snippets of conversation when he passed by those people, all of them drunk to some extent and slurring their stories of how the Flash had saved or otherwise aided them. House fires, jewelry store robberies, shoot-outs, muggings, you name it.  
Barry smiled to himself as he went about his business.  
At 10:30 or so, Barry found himself talking to a very inebriated Captain Singh, who had an arm slung around his indulgent husband.  
“You know Allen,” Singh slurred. “I know we’re supposed to catch the Flash- he’s a vig-vigil-vigilante…but he’s a good guy.” He smiled dopily up at Barry. “He helps people, you know? I mean, sure he’s not a cop, but so what? He makes our jobs easier and he saves people. Bad guys just don’ do that. I mean, he’s saved, like, twenty of the police officers here tonight! An’ he helps with fires and stuff. He’s a great guy…” Singh trailed off, head drooping drunkenly.  
“Ok, honey, time for us to go home. We need to get you into bed.” Rob smiled fondly at his husband.  
“Need any help getting him to the car?” Barry offered.  
“Nah, I got it. Thanks teddy-bear,” Rob winked at him jovially. “And happy Halloween!”  
“Happy Halloween to you too!” Barry waved as they took their leave.  
Suddenly Iris plowed into him, seemingly coming from nowhere.  
“Barrrry,” she slurred. Man was she drunk. She clung to his arm as she tried to keep herself upright. “Bear, I know I was mad a’ you about the whole Flash thing, bu’ I f’rgive you. I mean, I liked ‘te Flash ‘fore I knew he was you, so why shouldn’ I like ‘im now?” Barry looked around hastily, ensuring that no one had overheard Iris’s slip up. “He saves so m’ny people, you know? And not jus' good people, un uh, he saves bad people too. Like, this one time, I heard a story ‘bout how he broke up a gang fight. Like ten guys were beat’n up these other two and ‘te Flash broke up the fight! Those were gang mem’er Barry! Gang mem’ers!” Iris pulled him close, gazing into his eyes beseechingly. “An’ that’s not all! One time this aban’oned building was on fire, and Flash went in and saved all the homeless crackheads that were inside. They were drug addic’s Barry, an’ you saved ‘em all!” Iris’s eyes were full of wonder and admiration. “Yer a good person, Bear, a good person.”  
Barry grinned down at her indulgently.  
“Does this mean that I’m officially forgiven?”  
“Yeah Bear, I f’rgive you…”  
“I’m gonna hold you to that you know. No taksies-backsies.”  
“No taksies-backsies…” Iris murmured blearily, leaning more heavily into Barry, forcing him to catch her before she melted to the ground. Barry chuckled at her antics.  
“Alright, I think you’ve had enough; let’s find Eddie and Joe and head home.”  
“Hmm…?” Iris’s eyes had slipped shut as she buried her face in the soft fur covering Barry’s chest. “Yer so soft, Bear…so soft…my teddy bear…”  
Iris was practically falling asleep in Barry’s arms, and as he tried to nudge her into moving, she stubbornly refused to support her own weight. Barry sighed, both out of fondness and exasperation, and bent down to scoop Iris into his arms bridal style.  
“Whoa! So strong Barry…” Iris slurred into his neck.  
“Mmhm,” Barry hummed absently in agreement as he began searching for Joe and Eddie.  
It didn’t take long, and thankfully they were less inebriated than Iris. They were still pretty drunk, but they seemed to be able to walk ok(ish).  
“Come on guys, time to get Iris home.”  
“Ok,” they slurred as they followed Barry out like a couple of drunken puppies following their master. Barry couldn’t help but chuckle at that little metaphor. ‘Simile,’ his helpful brain reminded him.  
Barry led them carefully to the car, which he somehow managed to unlock without dropping Iris, before setting his load in one of the back seats, buckling her in as she was now well and truly out.  
Standing back up Barry saw that Joe and Eddie were just standing there next to the car, eyes glazed. Barry sighed and rounded the car, guiding first Eddie, and then Joe into the car and buckling their seatbelts for them.  
Barry slid into the driver’s seat and snapped his own seatbelt. He quickly adjusted his mirrors, glancing back at his cargo, Eddie next to Iris and well on his way to joining her in slumber-land, Joe’s in the front seat, head lolling against the window. Barry smiled. For the first time in a while, he felt good about what he was doing as the Flash. It felt good to finally feel that way again. He started up the car and pulled gently down the street, taking his friends home.


End file.
